BillMac, KevinCBrown
It's not like it's gonna be out next week or anything. It'll be a little while so don't be too hasty and put everything on hold just yet. And just like with past players, the target date in not written in stone.

BillMac, KevinCBrown
It's not like it's gonna be out next week or anything. It'll be a little while so don't be too hasty and put everything on hold just yet. And just like with past players, the target date in not written in stone.

I just watched Thomas Crown Affair (excellent PQ) on the 980H, its a keeper! I am patient (somewhat) and will be happy to wait till the 983H arrives.

My only question with the 980H is there a way to tweak it to minimize the video noise I see sometimes in a solid color background? Not a big issue but would be curious if it can be done. One thing I found odd when I programmed the 980H into my Harmony 688 everything is fine but the pause button does not work. When I press the pause button the icon, circle with a slash through it comes up on the screen. I am going to try to program it manually, that should work. Just entered the pause function manually and it works fine!

Okay, I'm late to the party. I just received my DV-980H today and all I can say is for a buck eighty shipped to my door, this thing is impressive. The moment you open it up your greeted by packaging that looks like you spend a fortune on the product! What a nice touch the velcro bag with the Oppo logo is. This doesn't mean anything other then this company really pays attention to the smallest details.

I was suprised at the standard sized detachable power cord at this price point along with every conceivable way to connect the player too. Included hookup cords a bonus and the HDMI even has the right logo on it that I believe indicates it conforms to HDMI standards. Sleek look and cool blue light so it sure is Snappy looking with the rest of the gear.

It first got hooked up with a cheap Sony DVD player and honestly the PQ quality wasn't a quantum leap forward. We played two DVD's of the same exact title and switched back and forth. The Oppo may have had an slight edge but nothing to make you run out and just ditch a serviceable unit, at least to my eyes. This may be in part to feeding it native (both units) at 480i to a Yammie DPX-1300 projector using its Silicon Optix's built-in scaler, They both looked good.

I then took it home and installed it in my rack to a Yamaha RX-V2700 via HDMI only. The DSD SACD it played was heads and heals better then my old Pioneer 45vi (not positive that is the whole model number). Audio was terrific so that was good news. I then set-about to engage the Yammie ABT Scaler to just the 480i signal from the Oppo. But nothing, no configureable options were in the menu. For whatever reason, I couldn't change anything. So I used the Oppo's scaler and set it for 720p (my set's native). What a great picture I had. Easily beat my old Pioneer.

A real manual too! Easily one of the best I've seen yet.

I haven't done any tweaking but I can say there is a whole lot of value in these players. I looks like I'm preaching to the choir but I figured I should throw in a couple cents worth for anyone on the fence. I do know you can spend a lot more money on a Universal Player, but I think you'd have to spend 'stupid' money to ever get much more out of one. What a great product!!

Lastly, the manual mentions changing the bit rate on LPCM for receivers/processors that can handle the higher rates, which I think mine can. But its 'grayed' out so I can't change it. Anyone know how?

LPCM rate - This option is only available when you set HDMI Audio = Off. The reason is that HDMI uses device-to-device negotiation to determine what is the best bit/sample rate. If you turn off HDMI audio and use coax/optical, the LPCM rate can be set. Coax/optical are one-way link so the rate must be manually set at the source side.

I just came across something with my 980H which hopefully is something that can be fixed with a FW upgrade. When I power off the 980H it does not resume where playback was when powered off (I tried several discs). In the manual on page 35 it says that "Operations such as EJECT,STOP or POWER off will cause the DVD player to save the current playing position". I tried hitting stop first then powering off and just powering off during playback, neither worked.

I did not see anything in the menu inregard to resume playback. I recall seeing some mention of a FW upgrade that will enable this feature but can not remember if it was for the 980H. This feature is an important one for me and was an issue with the Toshiba A2 I had. The A2 does not have the resume after power off for SD discs.

I then set-about to engage the Yammie ABT Scaler to just the 480i signal from the Oppo. But nothing, no configureable options were in the menu. For whatever reason, I couldn't change anything. So I used the Oppo's scaler and set it for 720p (my set's native). What a great picture I had. Easily beat my old Pioneer.

I'm pretty sure that the Yamaha won't scale when the source comes through HDMI.

I just came across something with my 980H which hopefully is something that can be fixed with a FW upgrade. When I power off the 980H it does not resume where playback was when powered off (I tried several discs). In the manual on page 35 it says that "Operations such as EJECT,STOP or POWER off will cause the DVD player to save the current playing position". I tried hitting stop first then powering off and just powering off during playback, neither worked.

I did not see anything in the menu inregard to resume playback. I recall seeing some mention of a FW upgrade that will enable this feature but can not remember if it was for the 980H. This feature is an important one for me and was an issue with the Toshiba A2 I had. The A2 does not have the resume after power off for SD discs.

Bill

You can try upgrading the FW to the 820 beta version. The current/original FW only saves the breakpoint in memory by pressing the eject button.

The following new features and improvements are included in this version:

1. Improved DVD-Audio Disc Compatibility

There are reports of some DVD-Audio discs released by Arista and Silverline not playing properly on the DV-980H with the previous firmware version. This version improves the compatibility and will play those discs properly.

2. RGB Range Selection

This firmware version adds a setup menu item "RGB Range" in the "Video Setup Page". The default setting is "Normal", which is the recommended setting and the same as the previous firmware. The new "Enhanced" setting expands the studio RGB range of 16-235 into the 0-255 range, suitable for PC display. Use the "Enhanced" setting only when you use a PC display or encounter poor black-white contrast. For normal video display (TVs and projectors), using the "Enhanced" setting will result in clipping black and white signal level and loss of details.

3. Easier Disc Memory Operation

This firmware version saves the breakpoint for disc memory when the STOP or EJECT button is pressed. The previous firmware version saves the breakpoint only when the EJECT button is pressed while the disc is playing.

One thing I've noticed about mine is in dark scene when there is a slight pause between "chapters" the black screen flickers. Once the movie continues this goes away and blacks are solid again...same with credits. It's just in between scenes that I see this. Any thoughts on cause?

LPCM rate - This option is only available when you set HDMI Audio = Off. The reason is that HDMI uses device-to-device negotiation to determine what is the best bit/sample rate. If you turn off HDMI audio and use coax/optical, the LPCM rate can be set. Coax/optical are one-way link so the rate must be manually set at the source side.

Thanks... Interesting, though, I never get anything higher than 44.1/48 KHz via LPCM over HDMI, and my Integra 8.8 is SUPPOSED to support LPCM up to 192 KHz. Hmmm, someone in the chain isn't talking the right language.

For example, I just tried this last night...

SACD via HDMI with HDMI=Auto and SACD=PCM... It sends multichannel LPCM @ 48Khz. I would expect this to be at least 96KHz.

It will be much less forgiving. I used to watch DVD Screeners on my 480p CRT (30") and they looked great. I then moved up to a Plasma and the discs were still good, but no where near the quality I had seen previously. Newer displays are very "true" to the quality of the media.

That makes sense. It's a similar situation to how high quality speakers are not very forgiving of poorly encoded MP3s (or in some people's opinion, any MP3).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avio

beowulf7: Congrats back to you.

Did it come today? Did UPS leave it on your porch as you wanted without requiring a signature? Did it come with the HDMI cable (I'm counting on this for mine).

Today I received my UPS Tracking # and shipping confirmation email. Amazon's listing went back to:

"Availability: In Stock"

Avio

Yes to all of your questions, Avio!

I saw the box on my front porch as I got home. It was funny - while at the gym after work last night, I was thinking of my DVD player. I know that sounds pretty sad. When I got home, I noticed the outer Amazon box was half open (the tape had become undone). But luckily, the inner OPPO box was undamaged. And the DVD player itself was in perfect condition. It came w/ a 6' HDMI cable. But since I had an extra 3' HDMI cable that I got from MonoPrice, I used it instead. 3' just barely makes it, but I'm a fan of using minimum runs when possible.

Note that the DVD player, by default, comes dumbed down. I don't know why OPPO thinks someone would pay so much money for a DVD player (let's face it, it's a lot more expensive than what most people pay for a DVD player), yet would hook it up directly to a TV rather than a receiver. So you must change the audio down-mix setting to 5.1 or 7.1 and set the speakers to large. Also, change the HDMI input to 1080p, assuming your TV can display it. By default, it does 480p. The only other thing I changed was from 16:9 to 16:9 AUTO. I prefer black bars over a distorted/stretched image.

I have 2 questions on the audio setting. 1.) I was not able to change the SACD setting; it was grayed out. (Yes, my DVD player was in "Stop" mode - nothing was playing.) 2.) If I'm sending raw audio to the receiver, why do I still have to set it to 5.1 and large speakers? Isn't that redundant to what the receiver does?

Tonight and this weekend, I'll try playing audio and MP3 CDs and more movies. I only played "Matrix" DVD last night, which was the 1st time I saw 1080p material on my new 57" DLP TV. Even though I've seen "Matrix" 10 times, once I skipped to Chap. 29 ("Lobby Shooting Spree"), I had to watch it 'til the end.

lennyd, yes, the black velcro bag was a nice touch. It seemed to justify the buck seventy I spent on it.

Whoa, this became a bit of a longer post than I was expecting.

Procrastination is the thief of time.-- Edward Young

They that give up essential liberty to obtain a littletemporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.-- Benjamin Franklin

Thanks... Interesting, though, I never get anything higher than 44.1/48 KHz via LPCM over HDMI, and my Integra 8.8 is SUPPOSED to support LPCM up to 192 KHz. Hmmm, someone in the chain isn't talking the right language.

For example, I just tried this last night...

SACD via HDMI with HDMI=Auto and SACD=PCM... It sends multichannel LPCM @ 48Khz. I would expect this to be at least 96KHz.

Something isn't right. I need to check this again...

Try sending 96 khz or 192 kHz DVD-A via HDMI . I've definitely passed those via HDMI with the Oppo 970 -- I get the proper sample rate confirmation on my AVR. Also, Digital Output should be set to RAW.

I have 2 questions on the audio setting. 1.) I was not able to change the SACD setting; it was grayed out. (Yes, my DVD player was in "Stop" mode - nothing was playing.) 2.) If I'm sending raw audio to the receiver, why do I still have to set it to 5.1 and large speakers? Isn't that redundant to what the receiver does?

1. To change some of the SACD settings, you need to have playback stopped and either no disc in or the disc tray open.

2. If you are sending raw Dolby Digital or DTS audio to the speaker (via either coaxial/optical or via HDMI) and the receiver is decoding it, then the speaker settings (downmix, large/small, distances, and levels) are all ignored. Those settings are there solely for the sake of the player's on-board decoder, and as such are only going to come into play when using the multichannel analog output (such as with DVD-Audio or SACD discs) or when outputting multichannel PCM via HDMI (again, such as with DVD-A/SACD). This is why the default settings are so basic - somebody connecting to a TV via HDMI or stereo analog audio will not have to worry about setting it up right, while somebody playing DVD-Audio or SACD discs via multichannel analog or HDMI output is more likely to know to check those settings and adjust them appropriately. If you are connecting to a receiver with a coaxial or optical cable (or even with HDMI, assuming the HDMI Audio output is set to "Auto") and playing DVD's and CD's, you can basically skip those settings entirely.

... the speaker settings (downmix, large/small, distances, and levels) are all ignored. Those settings are there solely for the sake of the player's on-board decoder, and as such are only going to come into play when using the multichannel analog output (such as with DVD-Audio or SACD discs) or when outputting multichannel PCM via HDMI (again, such as with DVD-A/SACD). ... If you are connecting to a receiver with a coaxial or optical cable (or even with HDMI, assuming the HDMI Audio output is set to "Auto") and playing DVD's and CD's, you can basically skip those settings entirely.

That isn't entirely correct. (I was playing with this last night.) When Digital Out=PCM, the decoder output is used, it will decode all multichannel content and downmix to either DPLII (Rt/Lt), Stereo, or Simulated Surround and send that 2 channel mix to the digital out. Actually, it's pretty cool - if you have an older analog (or even digital) DPL AVR, you can have it do DPL decoding of DD, DTS, M-LPCM original content...

My interest in it was to see if HDCD was decoded and sent out digitally when Digital Out=PCM and Downmix=Stereo, and I used DTS discs to test to see if the decoder output went to the S/PDIF digital out - and it does! Still not sure about HDCD though...

That isn't entirely correct. (I was playing with this last night.) When Digital Out=PCM, the decoder output is used, it will decode all multichannel content and downmix to either DPLII (Rt/Lt), Stereo, or Simulated Surround and send that 2 channel mix to the digital out. Actually, it's pretty cool - if you have an older analog (or even digital) DPL AVR, you can have it do DPL decoding of DD, DTS, M-LPCM original content...

My interest in it was to see if HDCD was decoded and sent out digitally when Digital Out=PCM and Downmix=Stereo, and I used DTS discs to test to see if the decoder output went to the S/PDIF digital out - and it does! Still not sure about HDCD though...

Actually, it is entirely correct if to retain the first part of that sentence (the part replaced by the "..." in my quoted post) where I refer to outputting Dolby Digital or DTS bitstreams, since it is impossible to output those bitstreams with Digital Out set to PCM. Once Digital Out is set to PCM, you are using the player's decoder to produce a downmixed stereo PCM signal for the coaxial and optical digital otuputs, just as you describe.

Problem I have:
I plugged component video, HDMI and Optical into the receiver from the Oppo. When I assigned the HDMI input into the receiver, there was no sound. I had to assign optical to DVD in order to get any sound.

Question:
- Is it because I am using component for video I can't use HDMI for audio? Can HDMI replace optical and 7.1 entirely for audio signal transfer?
- Because I have HDMI, 7.1 and optical on both the 980 and my receiver, it's confusing when to use what... could somebody tell me when to use what? I would like to use the 980 for DVD-V, DVD-A, SACD.

How many presses? What is the succession rate (ie. speed at which you are pressing the buttons)? I personally have not experienced this issue, but I also have not tried excessively pressing the buttons.

This is because of the succession design of the zoom controls. The first Zoom mode is 1:1. Then you start to get into the other Zoom modes available on the player.

Once again, how many times are you pressing the Zoom button and how often? The only time Zoom should not become effective is if the next picture in the slideshow is being decoded, or if you are skipping to the next picture.

Because it is a pain in the ass when I have to cycle through 10 Zoom modes just to get back to the Normal 1:1 mode.

Additionally, in my testing, I have found that USB flash based media is slower than HDD based media.

There is an error in the current firmware which does not playback files numerically/alphabetically. This will be addressed in a future firmware release.

Here is the response I got from Oppo:

Depending on the size of the picture file, it may take several seconds for the player to buffer the next picture. Additionally, the transitioning of pictures is controlled by the slide show transition timer, which can further increase JPEG image rasterization.

There is a known error in the current firmware release which does not properly organize the files on CD, DVD, and USB media in alphabetical or numerical order as well as causing the PAUSE button to become ineffective if the Zoom button is also pressed. These should be addressed in a future firmware release for the DV-980H.

We have also not experienced issue with the navigation keys causing the Zoom function to become disabled. We will have to do some testing in the following days to attempt to verity this error. The Zoom button itself should also not be effective when the picture is being transitioned to another picture. Ensure that you have set transition time to a higher number to ensure more time to enable the Zoom functionality.

We will contact the firmware engineers and ask them why pressing Zoom once always shows 1:1 rather than enable the next Zoom mode. However, we can comment on why the Zoom button is not used to navigate the Zoom modes. The main reason for this is that we had found that people are less likely to use a function when more keypresses are enabled. For example, with DVD playback, the user is required to press the Zoom button continuously in order to return back to a Normal 1:1 mode.

The slow playback errors of JPEG images is not really a problem associated to USB 2.0, but limitation of the hardware solutions available for a setop DVD player. Buffering is the main reason why JPEG images load as slow as they do on USB media, and unfortunately, we are very hardware limited in this regard.

Best Regards,

Customer Service
OPPO Digital, Inc

I repeated testing with the same photos on a Flash Drive, and it transitioned in close to 6 seconds, as opposed to 10 or so seconds for the memory card in a card reader, so either my memory card or my card reader are slower than the flash drive. 6 seconds is better, but still a bit slow for my taste.

I hit the left/right and/or up/down buttons 5 or 6 times in 4 to 5 seconds to pan around the zoomed picture, then it kicks me out. I don't believe it has anything to do with what I am doing, it is caused by the PAUSE button not working when you are Zoomed.

So, apparently, the only way to pan around a zoomed image is to change the slideshow speed to a long interval (I like 5 seconds when I have a lot of pics, so this really sucks!), then zoom and pan and then change it back to 5 seconds! What a pain in the butt that is! I hope Pause when Zoomed is fixed soon.

There are NOT 10 zoom modes for photos. There are only 4: 100x, 125x, 150x and 200x. How many button presses does it take the way it is? More than four! Lets see, hit pause (but that does not work!), then zoom twice, then the FF button 3 times to get to 200x. That's 6 button presses on 3 different buttons to zoom to 200x. Plus the extra presses to change the slideshow speed because pause doesn't work.

Why not have the zoom button cycle thru the four zooms? Much easier and more intuitive than the current setup.

Also, I did test WMA files on my Flash drive, and they do play, so the problem I was having with many of my music files not playing or even displaying on my 40G FAT-formated iRiver MP3 player is likely due to the large number of files and folders. I need to try consolidating some of the folders (putting all the albums from the same band in one folder might help) and see if it works. It's too bad there are so many limitations with the MTK chipset for playing JPG and music files.

I also played with the various sound modes, and some of them sounded pretty good (Rock/Pop, and arena, hall, etc.) - kinda fun to play with. Don't get me wrong, I love this player, I just wish the USB functionality was better.

I seriously do not know what is causing your errors, as I have not been able to replicate a single error you have described.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iggymama

I hit the left/right and/or up/down buttons 5 or 6 times in 4 to 5 seconds to pan around the zoomed picture, then it kicks me out. I don't believe it has anything to do with what I am doing, it is caused by the PAUSE button not working when you are Zoomed.

So, apparently, the only way to pan around a zoomed image is to change the slideshow speed to a long interval (I like 5 seconds when I have a lot of pics, so this really sucks!), then zoom and pan and then change it back to 5 seconds!

Once the player has been Zoomed, and you have not cycled through the Zoom modes by pressing "Zoom" or Play, then the picture should remain on your display indefinitely. This afternoon I kept the same image frozen on my DV-980HD just by pressing Zoom twice (Normal->100%) and I was able to Zoom and Pan to my hearts content without ever touching the slideshow adjustments.

Quote:

There are NOT 10 zoom modes for photos.

You are forgetting that you can also reduce the size of the picture. You can do the following: Scale 1:1, 100%, 125%, 150%, 200%, 75%, 50%. So no, there are not 10 modes, but there are more than just 4 modes as you describe.

Quote:

Also, I did test WMA files on my Flash drive

Make sure the WMA files are not lossless. If they are, then you will not be able to playback these files on any of the OPPO products.

Quote:

I just wish the USB functionality was better.

The same limitations that plague the system through USB are also there were CD and DVD media as well.

Problem I have:
I plugged component video, HDMI and Optical into the receiver from the Oppo. When I assigned the HDMI input into the receiver, there was no sound. I had to assign optical to DVD in order to get any sound.

Question:
- Is it because I am using component for video I can't use HDMI for audio? Can HDMI replace optical and 7.1 entirely for audio signal transfer?
- Because I have HDMI, 7.1 and optical on both the 980 and my receiver, it's confusing when to use what... could somebody tell me when to use what? I would like to use the 980 for DVD-V, DVD-A, SACD.

Thanks.

Try assigning the HDMI to an AUX input on the onkyo. Leave the component/toslink the same for DVDs. When you want to listen to a CD, choose the aux on the receiver, when you want to watch a movie, choose DVD on the receiver. Your DVD sound will go through the optical, which won't matter it is the same as going through HDMI. Just use 2 receiver inputs. Only problem with DVD-A you can't navigate the menus on your TV screen if you wanted to.

That should work. I don't use my 980 for movies, only for music. I have it set up with HDMI to my AUX1 on my onkyo 805.

Glad to be a part of the Oppo 980H family as it arrived today from Amazon. My dear, loving wife made the purchase for me!! Using HDMI exclusively for night time viewing on the Toshiba 37HL66 and component/optical route to the Yamaha HTR-5960(for the thunder). Iam a little spoiled by my Malata DVP-520 in which I was able to use x/y scaling. Hopefully in the near future, a firmware would add that function.

I seriously do not know what is causing your errors, as I have not been able to replicate a single error you have described.

Once the player has been Zoomed, and you have not cycled through the Zoom modes by pressing "Zoom" or Play, then the picture should remain on your display indefinitely. This afternoon I kept the same image frozen on my DV-980HD just by pressing Zoom twice (Normal->100%) and I was able to Zoom and Pan to my hearts content without ever touching the slideshow adjustments.

You are forgetting that you can also reduce the size of the picture. You can do the following: Scale 1:1, 100%, 125%, 150%, 200%, 75%, 50%. So no, there are not 10 modes, but there are more than just 4 modes as you describe.

Make sure the WMA files are not lossless. If they are, then you will not be able to playback these files on any of the OPPO products.

The same limitations that plague the system through USB are also there were CD and DVD media as well.

I put the slideshow in 5 a second cycle. I hit pause (which is the only way to access the zoom mode), then hit zoom twice (to get into the zoom mode), then use FF to zoom to 200x. Then I pan around for a few seconds. By the time I pan a few times, it automatically goes to the next image.

Oppo told me pause does not work with zoom, so I assume that is what is causing this behaviour. I have no idea how you get it to stay on the screen when the slideshow is in a 5 second cycle. What firmware are you running? I never updated mine. I don't believe any of these issues were addressed with firmware intentionally, but you never know!

I forgot about shrinking the image. But they could at least get rid of the extra step of hitting zoom twice, and please fix the pause when zoomed!

Mine also won't zoom when I select an image directly from the menu. I have to go back one, then forward to the one I want and hit pause and zoom 2x to get into zoom mode. This seems like a bug - or I have a defective unit! Did you try that?

None of my music files are lossless (all my WMAs are encoded at 320?, ~5-8M each), and as I said, they did play on my Flash drive. I have a 40G iRiver full of music, so the issue is likely caused by the number of files and/or the folder depth (too many subfolders). I need to do some experimenting with my iRiver's folder structure to reduce the folder depth without deleting songs (which I am unwilling to do).

So all of these issues exist with CDs and DVDs, except the speed/buffering limitations of USB. Hopefully Oppo will address those that can be fixed soon.